Skip to main content

French government suspend Ecotax after violent protests

As this issue of ITS International goes to press there is considerable confusion over the introduction of the French Ecotax following widespread and sometimes violent protests. Following a series of postponements going back over several years, the GNSS-based tax on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was due to come into effect on 1 January 2014 and was expected to raise one billion euros per year. However, the French government has announced that the tax has been suspended indefinitely but is stressing that this is
December 20, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
As this issue of 1846 ITS International goes to press there is considerable confusion over the introduction of the French Ecotax following widespread and sometimes violent protests.

Following a series of postponements going back over several years, the GNSS-based tax on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was due to come into effect on 1 January 2014 and was expected to raise one billion euros per year. However, the French government has announced that the tax has been suspended indefinitely but is stressing that this is a suspension, not a cancellation.

The suspension was announced after France’s politically significant farmers joined the growing protests as they were unhappy about a ‘green tax’ being levied on the vehicles used to transport products from their farms. French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the tax may be postponed until July 2014 after local and EU elections but there is no official word from the government of French President Francois Hollande.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK government to fund carbon-cutting truck trials
    April 25, 2012
    Truck operators have been invited to apply for a slice of US$15.34 million provided for industry trials of carbon-cutting trucks by the UK Department for Transport and the Technology Strategy Board. A competition opened yesterday for applications under the ‘Low carbon truck demonstration trial’ which will deliver fleets of low-emission heavy goods vehicles as well as supporting infrastructure such as fuelling stations and electric recharging hubs.
  • Countering congestion’s cost
    May 6, 2015
    A new report on the economic costs of traffic congestion predicts the problem will worsen significantly in future. Jon Masters reviews the figures and some suggested solutions. New figures on the rising economic and environmental costs of congestion have been published by the US traffic data specialist Inrix and the UK’s Centre for Economics & Business Research (Cebr). Their report finds the problem much bigger than previously thought.
  • Austria issues highest fines for violation of diesel bans, says study
    January 31, 2019
    Austria imposes the highest fines in Europe for violating diesel bans and low-emission zones, according to new research. Austrian authorities charge up to €2,180 for violators – the next highest is the UK, with fines up to £1,138. Auto parts company Kfzteile24 based its findings on data from UrbanAccessRegulations.eu and its map offers a comparison between 350 cities across Europe. The overview outlines examples of vehicles already affected by low-emission zones and driving diesel bans - and those likel
  • Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    January 18, 2012
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by